SAN MARCOS: Millions flow to students in technology

Cal State San Marcos undergraduates are researching stem cells and bacterial proteins, while high-scoring Palomar College students help teach math and science classes, through federal grants that aim to add graduates in science, technology, engineering and math.

The fields, known as the STEM disciplines, are targets of a federal campaign to bring the nation up to speed on world markets, where developing countries are outpacing the U.S. in technological innovation. One program upends years of tradition ---- instead of hitting students with "flunk-out" classes early in their academic careers to weed out the less talented or motivated, it helps them get past the tough required subjects.

Cal State San Marcos and Palomar College each benefit from about $10 million in multiyear federal grants for STEM education; MiraCosta receives nearly $2 million in state and federal money for technology and science education.

For Joanna Malfavon-Borja, whose family used to work at the chicken ranch where the university now stands, those programs have been instrumental to a nascent career in biomedical research.

Malfavon-Borja, 23, studied under a Palomar College program aimed at boosting minorities' role in STEM fields, and then earned a university scholarship that provides stipends and services to guide minority students into graduate study and research careers.

In a university laboratory, she conducts experiments on the immune response of Pacific blue shrimp, examining the way infections trigger changes to shrimp DNA.

She plans to employ those lab skills in a Ph.D. program in biomedicine, following her brother and uncle, who are both earning doctoral degrees. The STEM programs, Malfavon-Borja said, sharpened her drive to succeed in science.

"Being in a community of like-minded individuals, being able to come here and shadow researchers, I wanted to be on par with everyone else," she said. "I was more driven and focused."

Foreign competitors gaining

Federal agencies invested about $3.4 billion on STEM education programs in fiscal 2010 in an effort to jump-start that kind of ambition, according to a report by the federal Office of Science and Technology Police.

The funds aim to bridge the gap between job openings in fields such as energy, electronics, medical research and environmental science, and the qualified candidates available to fill them.

"Our national competitiveness is at stake because we're not producing enough scientists and engineers," Cal State San Marcos physics Chairman Charles De Leone said.

While the U.S. retains its place as the world's economic leader, its grasp on that position is slipping, as developing countries gain in education and research, a 2010 report by the National Academies stats.

Over the previous 30 years, higher education funding in California dropped from 10 to 8 percent of the state general fund, while prison spending grew from 3 to 11 percent, according to the report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm."

"In 2000, the number of foreign students studying the physical sciences and engineering in United States graduate schools for the first time surpassed the number of United States students," the report stated. "The gathering storm increasingly appears to be a Category 5."

Growing job market

Nonetheless, other reports indicate that while qualified candidates for scientific and technical positions are falling short, the job market itself is on the rise.

"In our region we have an incredible amount of job opportunities for people in STEM," said Katherine Kantardjieff, dean of the university's College of Science and Mathematics.

A July report by the U.S. Department of Commerce found that STEM employment had increased at three times the rate of other sectors, and was projected to keep growing at nearly double the rate of jobs outside science and technology.

Workers in STEM fields earn 26 percent more than their counterparts in other fields, the report stated.

In Southern California, life sciences industries employ about 100,000 people, according to an economic impact report by the nonprofit trade association Biocom.

In 2011, San Diego life science establishments employed nearly 42,000 people, who earned an average annual salary of $115,082, the report stated.

That jobs picture is part of what attracted Alani Diamond to study biology at Palomar College in hopes of becoming a veterinarian.

"All the STEM disciplines, it's the one thing in this economy that's projected to grow," said Diamond, 22, who not only studies biology, but also helps teach an introductory class in the subject. "So I'm not worried about having a job in the future. I will always have the opportunity to grow in biological sciences. I'll always be learning."

Federal grants target STEM

To fill the knowledge gap, federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Department of Education spent $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2010 to draw more students to STEM fields and ensure they graduate.

The National Science Foundation alone granted more than $1.18 billion for STEM education in fiscal year 2010, and requested $2 billion for the 2012 fiscal year.

Cal State San Marcos and Palomar College have each captured about $10 million in current, multiyear grants to recruit math and science students, provide tutoring and research training, buy equipment, and update curricula.

"We want to grow our own engineers, our own chemists and physicists down the line," said Dan Sourbeer, interim dean of math and natural and health sciences at Palomar College.

For instance, a $1.6 million NSF grant shared by both colleges will help recruit active duty military and veterans, as well as minority students, to STEM majors.

Another grant for $775,000 from the U.S. Department of Education helps the institutions attract and graduate Latino students in STEM majors.

The improvements translate into better facilities and services for all students in those fields, regardless of ethnicity, Sourbeer said.

A $1 million National Institutes of Health grant to the university helps flag community college students with talent in biomedical sciences, and guide them toward research careers.

MiraCosta has received nearly $1.7 million in local money to steer high school students toward careers in health sciences, energy technology and other technical fields, and shares a grant with Cal State San Marcos that trains students for research internships.

Other grants promote study of particular fields, such as stem cell research, environmental and natural resource science or geographic information systems, which use satellite data to create digital maps.

Some pay for tutoring, peer instruction, and new math and science learning centers to get students through tough lower-division classes.

It's a deliberate effort to reverse earlier approaches to math and science that screened out all but the top students.

"There are a lot of people who were left behind in previous years, who could have been successful engineers and scientists, and we want to help them," Sourbeer said.

Educators push science literacy

Students in STEM major say that besides offering good job prospects, their fields of study pay intellectual dividends as well.

"I never picked biology thinking I was on my way to get the big bucks," said Arthur Ledesma, 24, a biology and chemistry student at the university who is working on undergraduate research on bacterial protein structures. "For me it was the passion, the interest. I want to know how things tick."

Educators hope the infusion of funding will spark a broader interest in STEM fields. Science is not a secret code for a technical elite, they say, but a language that most people can learn.

"It's something that is really accessible to everybody," De Leone said. "The idea that you have to be specially blessed to do scientific thinking is nuts."

As colleges and universities promote STEM education, they hope not only to groom a cadre of future scientists, but also to cultivate a scientifically savvy population that can grapple with issues such as energy policy, nuclear safety, transportation and climate change.

"We need to make sure we've contributed to a scientifically literate population, who can critically think and make decisions when they cast a ballot," Kantardjieff said. "If we create a society that's not afraid of science, that appreciates what science and technological developments have done to move us forward, then we've done our part."